Forecast rain throws Giavellotto Arc plans into doubt

Giavellotto could sidestep Sunday’s Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, with rain forecast ahead of the ParisLongchamp highlight.

The six-year-old warmed up in fine fashion with victory over Kalpana in the September Stakes at Kempton but trainer Marco Botti would prefer good ground for his stable star.

With the weather appearing likely to scupper his chances at ParisLongchamp, the Newmarket handler will turn his attention to the Hong Kong Vase – which he won last year.

Botti said: “It is becoming a little bit of a concern. I don’t know how much rain they will get but last week when the decision was made we had the ground in our favour.

“Now with the rain forecast Friday into Saturday, that will put a lot of doubts into it basically.

“I’m not very keen to run on soft ground, that would be my decision but of course in these circumstances we need to have a conversation with the owners and what they decide to do.

“Saturday the forecast is rain, so it leaves it quite late in order to decide which way it goes. Unfortunately I wish we were in a different situation.

“Everything had gone smoothly. I was getting a little bit excited about getting to run in the Arc because he had a nice prep race at Kempton.

“It is one thing to run in the right conditions but another to start compromising with the ground. It is a little bit annoying to be honest. So we have to just sort of sit on the fence.

“The plan is to run in Hong Kong in December, that’s the race that has been the main target for a long time. The Arc was sort of a back-up plan in terms of we knew the ground would be on the easy side in October.

“Last week everything was in our favour. A lot of trainers were convinced the ground was going to be good or even fast ground. A lot of them have now changed their plans and now everything has changed and it’s not what we wanted it to be.”